Jan exports up 32.5% to $20.6 billion

New Delhi: India’s exports in January provisionally rose an annual 32.5% to $20.6 billion, the trade secretary said on Saturday, adding he saw exports for the year to March at more than $220 billion, slightly higher than the government’s $200 billion target.

But the trade deficit in January widened to $8 billion, after hitting a three-year low of $2.6 billion in December, and has reached $89 billion for the April-January period.

“On the whole, the export performance is pretty good and it is expected to cross $200 billion in February 2011 and it will cross $220 billion during this fiscal,” Rahul Khullar said in a statement.

Fiscal year begins in April and ends in March.

The April-January exports rose an annual 29.4% to $184.6 billion, while imports for the period provisionally grew 17.6% to $273.6 billion. Imports in January were at $28.6 billion.